Honor The Earth's video: Enbridge Line 5: the latest spill discovery

Enbridge's Line 5 was built 69 years ago and designed to last 50 years. The pipeline continues to deteriorate and threaten lands and waters across Wisconsin and Michigan. Carrying up to 23 million gallons of Canadian crude oil and natural gas liquids daily, the pipeline currently runs 645 miles across Anishinaabe lands, from Superior WI to Sarnia, Ontario. The August 2022 spill discovery and patch job is just the latest in a long list. Enbridge Line 5 has spilled at least 1.13 million gallons of oil in 29 incidents; only 1 of the 29 was discovered by Enbridge’s leak detection system. Several, including Kalamazoo (the second largest inland oil spill in US history), involved stress cracking along the longitudinal pipe seam (pipe blowout shown in video). Enbridge had a 30-year cleanup failure and cover-up on a major Line 5 spill in Hiawatha National Forest in MI in 1980, then in 2011 took over a year to report newly discovered oil and chemicals in the same area. An Enbridge Line 13 spill In April 2021 at Ft. Atkinson, WI, which the company claimed was just over a gallon and below the federal and state reporting threshold, turned out to be at least 1,386 gallons, contaminating soil and groundwater with toxic chemicals and petroleum products. WI-DNR cited Enbridge for waiting more than 15 months to report the leak. Line 5 is running illegally in both Wisconsin and Michigan, with expired Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bay Mills Indian Community, US Forest Service, and MI state permits. As they pursue new permits for a reroute in WI and underwater oil tunnel in MI, Enbridge’s own study shows minimal Line 5 shut-down impact to gas prices. Produced by Honor the Earth. Filmed and edited by Bee Kakac.